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Math without tears?!?!

What it is:

CTCMath is a self-paced online math curriculum for kindergarten through high school. Each lesson includes short, simple video instruction followed by practice problems, and optional printable worksheets and one page summaries of each lesson. There are also diagnostic tests for each area of study, and an easy to use parent section where you can monitor your child’s progress, assign tasks, and view weekly reports.

With our membership we have access to ALL grades, so we can hop down a grade if there’s an area of concern that needs some review, and if Artist continues to whiz through third grade using this program she can keep going and going.

Side note — CTCMath does not use common core, which totally earns it brownie points in my book. 😉

How we use it:

Though Artist had technically already been doing 3rd grade math this year, her grasp of some of the concepts was shaky so we started her about a third of the way through the grade, beginning with mental strategies for numbers, patterns and algebra. She’s mastered 23 lessons and also spent quite a bit of time playing their times tables game that’s a fun way to strengthen her fluency with those. (There’s also a puzzle that involves swapping blue and red pieces that I’ve yet to solve, but it’s fun to try, even for me, and a speed skills game that challenges you in addition or subtraction.)

What we think:

Artist says, “I like CTCMath.” Plain and simple. She likes that the instructional videos are easy to understand and not any lengthier than absolutely necessary to get the point across. The questions make sense, too. She’s yet to complain of not understanding what she’s supposed to do by the time she gets to practice problems, or being confused because the problems are worded oddly or overly complicated for no reason like we’ve experienced with some other programs.

In our time using CTCMath, Artist hasn’t been so frustrated that she screams like an emotional tween. 😉 And I haven’t had to step in and try to figure out a discombobulated hot-mess of a lesson only to get so frustrated myself that I just can’t even and want to throw in the towel but have to settle for just drinking another cup of coffee…not that more coffee is ever a bad thing, really, but you know.

I love how straightforward everything is.

Right now all of my mental capacity for teaching my 6 year old is reserved for trying not to lose my sanity when she keeps forgetting her letters that we’ve worked on a million times, so I haven’t started her with CTCMath, but since my membership allows for up to 10 students, I definitely will soon. I have a a one-year subscription, and I’m pretty sure I’ll pay to renew it once it’s up. Quite simply, CTCMath is working for us, and whatever works gets my vote!